Wau-bun eBook

Soon we were in the arms of our dear, kind friends.
A messenger was dispatched to “the garrison”
for the remaining members of the family, and for that
day, at least, I was the wonder and admiration of the
whole circle, “for the dangers I had seen.”

CHAPTER XVII.

CHICAGO IN 1831.

Fort Dearborn at that day consisted of the same buildings
as at present.[21] They were, of course, in a better
state of preservation, though still considerably dilapidated.
They had been erected in 1816, under the supervision
of Captain Hezekiah Bradley, and there was a story
current that, such was his patriotic regard for the
interests of the Government, he obliged the soldiers
to fashion wooden pins, instead of spikes and nails,
to fasten the timbers of the buildings, and that he
even called on the junior officers to aid in their
construction along with the soldiers, whose business
it was. If this were true, the captain must have
labored under the delusion (excusable in one who had
lived long on the frontier) that Government would
thank its servants for any excess of economical zeal.

The fort was inclosed by high pickets, with bastions
at the alternate angles. Large gates opened to
the north and south, and there were small posterns
here and there for the accommodation of the inmates.
The bank of the river which stretches to the west,
now covered by the light-house buildings, and inclosed
by docks, was then occupied by the root-houses of
the garrison. Beyond the parade-ground, which
extended south of the pickets, were the company gardens,
well filled with currant-bushes and young fruit-trees.

The fort stood at what might naturally be supposed
to be the mouth of the river. It was not so,
however, for in those days the latter took a turn,
sweeping round the promontory on which the fort was
built, towards the south, and joining the lake about
half a mile below. These buildings stood on the
right bank of the river, the left being a long spit
of land extending from the northern shore, of which
it formed a part. After the cutting through of
this portion of the left bank in 1833 by the United
States Engineers employed to construct a harbor at
this point, and the throwing out of the piers, the
water overflowed this long tongue of land, and, continually
encroaching on the southern bank, robbed it of many
valuable acres; while, by the same action of the vast
body of the lake, an accretion was constantly taking
place on the north of the harbor.

The residence of Jean Baptiste Beaubien stood at this
period between the gardens and the river-bank, and
still farther south was a rickety tenement, built
many years before by Mr. John Dean, the sutler of the
post. A short time after the commencement of the
growth of Chicago, the foundations of this building
were undermined by the gradual encroachment of the
lake, and it tumbled backward down the bank, where
it long lay, a melancholy spectacle.